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<div class="chapter xpack">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div>
<h2 class="title">
<a id="getting-started-index-lifecycle-management"></a>Tutorial: Automate rollover with ILM<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/edit/7.7/docs/reference/ilm/ilm-tutorial.asciidoc">edit</a><a class="xpack_tag" href="/subscriptions"></a>
</h2>
</div></div></div>

<p>This tutorial demonstrates how to use index lifecycle management
(ILM) to manage indices that contain time-series data.</p>
<p>When you continuously index timestamped documents into Elasticsearch,
you typically use an index alias so you can periodically roll over to a new index.
This enables you to implement a hot-warm-cold architecture to meet your performance
requirements for your newest data, control costs over time, enforce retention policies,
and still get the most out of your data.</p>
<p>To automate rollover and management of time-series indices with ILM, you:</p>
<div class="olist orderedlist">
<ol class="orderedlist">
<li class="listitem">
<a class="xref" href="getting-started-index-lifecycle-management.html#ilm-gs-create-policy" title="Create a lifecycle policy">Create a lifecycle policy</a> that defines the appropriate
phases and actions.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<a class="xref" href="getting-started-index-lifecycle-management.html#ilm-gs-apply-policy" title="Create an index template to apply the lifecycle policy">Create an index template</a> to apply the policy to each new index.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<a class="xref" href="getting-started-index-lifecycle-management.html#ilm-gs-bootstrap" title="Bootstrap the initial time-series index">Bootstrap an index</a> as the initial write index.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<a class="xref" href="getting-started-index-lifecycle-management.html#ilm-gs-check-progress" title="Check lifecycle progress">Verify indices are moving through the lifecycle phases</a>
as expected.
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>For an introduction to rolling indices, see <a class="xref" href="index-rollover.html" title="Rollover">Rollover</a>.</p>
<div class="important admon">
<div class="icon"></div>
<div class="admon_content">
<p>When you enable index lifecycle management for Beats or the Logstash Elasticsearch output plugin,
lifecycle policies are set up automatically.
You do not need bootstrap the initial index or take any other actions.
You can modify the default policies through
<a href="/guide/en/kibana/7.7/example-using-index-lifecycle-policy.html" class="ulink" target="_top">Kibana Management</a>
or the ILM APIs.</p>
</div>
</div>
<h3>
<a id="ilm-gs-create-policy"></a>Create a lifecycle policy<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/edit/7.7/docs/reference/ilm/ilm-tutorial.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
<p>A lifecycle policy specifies the phases in the index lifecycle
and the actions to perform in each phase. A lifecycle can have up to four phases:
<code class="literal">hot</code>, <code class="literal">warm</code>, <code class="literal">cold</code>, and <code class="literal">delete</code>.</p>
<p>You can define and manage policies through Kibana Management or with the
<a class="xref" href="ilm-put-lifecycle.html" title="Create lifecycle policy API">put policy</a> API.</p>
<p>For example, you might define a <code class="literal">timeseries_policy</code> that has two phases:</p>
<div class="ulist itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist">
<li class="listitem">
A <code class="literal">hot</code> phase that defines a rollover action to specify that an index rolls over when it
reaches either a <code class="literal">max_size</code> of 50 gigabytes or a <code class="literal">max_age</code> of 30 days.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
A <code class="literal">delete</code> phase that sets <code class="literal">min_age</code> to remove the index 90 days after rollover.
Note that this value is relative to the rollover time, not the index creation time.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>The underlying put policy request looks like this:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-console">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-console">PUT _ilm/policy/datastream_policy
{
  "policy": {
    "phases": {
      "hot": {                      <a id="CO428-1"></a><i class="conum" data-value="1"></i>
        "actions": {
          "rollover": {
            "max_size": "50GB",     <a id="CO428-2"></a><i class="conum" data-value="2"></i>
            "max_age": "30d"
          }
        }
      },
      "delete": {
        "min_age": "90d",           <a id="CO428-3"></a><i class="conum" data-value="3"></i>
        "actions": {
          "delete": {}              <a id="CO428-4"></a><i class="conum" data-value="4"></i>
        }
      }
    }
  }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="console_widget" data-snippet="snippets/1101.console"></div>
<div class="calloutlist">
<table border="0" summary="Callout list">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO428-1"><i class="conum" data-value="1"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The <code class="literal">min_age</code> defaults to <code class="literal">0ms</code>, so new indices enter the <code class="literal">hot</code> phase immediately.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO428-2"><i class="conum" data-value="2"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>Trigger the <code class="literal">rollover</code> action when either of the conditions are met.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO428-3"><i class="conum" data-value="3"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>Move the index into the <code class="literal">delete</code> phase 90 days after rollover.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO428-4"><i class="conum" data-value="4"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>Trigger the <code class="literal">delete</code> action when the index enters the delete phase.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>You can also invoke this API directly to add lifecycle policies.</p>
<p>For the complete list of actions that index lifecycle management can perform, see <a class="xref" href="ilm-actions.html" title="Index lifecycle actions"><em>Index lifecycle actions</em></a>.</p>
<h3>
<a id="ilm-gs-apply-policy"></a>Create an index template to apply the lifecycle policy<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/edit/7.7/docs/reference/ilm/ilm-tutorial.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
<p>To automatically apply a lifecycle policy to the new write index on rollover,
specify the policy in the index template used to create new indices.</p>
<p>For example, you might create a <code class="literal">timeseries_template</code> that is applied to new indices
whose names match the <code class="literal">timeseries-*</code> index pattern.</p>
<p>To enable automatic rollover, the template configures two ILM settings:</p>
<div class="ulist itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist">
<li class="listitem">
<code class="literal">index.lifecycle.name</code> specifies the name of the lifecycle policy to apply to new indices
that match the index pattern.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="literal">index.lifecycle.rollover_alias</code> specifies the index alias to be rolled over
when the rollover action is triggered for an index.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>You can use the Kibana Create template wizard to add the template.
This wizard invokes the put template API to create the template with the options you specify.</p>
<p>The underlying request looks like this:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-console">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-console">PUT _template/datastream_template
{
  "index_patterns": ["datastream-*"],                 <a id="CO429-1"></a><i class="conum" data-value="1"></i>
  "settings": {
    "number_of_shards": 1,
    "number_of_replicas": 1,
    "index.lifecycle.name": "datastream_policy",      <a id="CO429-2"></a><i class="conum" data-value="2"></i>
    "index.lifecycle.rollover_alias": "datastream"    <a id="CO429-3"></a><i class="conum" data-value="3"></i>
  }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="console_widget" data-snippet="snippets/1102.console"></div>
<div class="calloutlist">
<table border="0" summary="Callout list">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO429-1"><i class="conum" data-value="1"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>Apply the template to a new index if its name starts with <code class="literal">datastream-</code>.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO429-2"><i class="conum" data-value="2"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The name of the lifecycle policy to apply to each new index.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO429-3"><i class="conum" data-value="3"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The name of the alias used to reference these indices.
Required for policies that use the rollover action.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>You can also invoke this API directly to add templates.</p>
<h3>
<a id="ilm-gs-bootstrap"></a>Bootstrap the initial time-series index<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/edit/7.7/docs/reference/ilm/ilm-tutorial.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
<p>To get things started, you need to bootstrap an initial index and
designate it as the write index for the rollover alias specified in your index template.
The name of this index must match the template’s index pattern and end with a number.
On rollover, this value is incremented to generate a name for the new index.</p>
<p>For example, the following request creates an index called <code class="literal">datastream-000001</code>
and makes it the write index for the <code class="literal">datastream</code> alias.</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-console">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-console">PUT datastream-000001
{
  "aliases": {
    "datastream": {
      "is_write_index": true
    }
  }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="console_widget" data-snippet="snippets/1103.console"></div>
<p>When the rollover conditions are met, the <code class="literal">rollover</code> action:</p>
<div class="ulist itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist">
<li class="listitem">
Creates a new index called <code class="literal">datastream-000002</code>.
This matches the <code class="literal">datastream-*</code> pattern, so the settings from <code class="literal">datastream_template</code> are applied to the new index.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Designates the new index as the write index and makes the bootstrap index read-only.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>This process repeats each time rollover conditions are met.
You can search across all of the indices managed by the <code class="literal">datastream_policy</code> with the <code class="literal">datastream</code> alias.
Write operations are routed to the current write index.</p>
<h3>
<a id="ilm-gs-check-progress"></a>Check lifecycle progress<a class="edit_me edit_me_private" rel="nofollow" title="Editing on GitHub is available to Elastic" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/edit/7.7/docs/reference/ilm/ilm-tutorial.asciidoc">edit</a>
</h3>
<p>To get status information for managed indices, you use the ILM explain API.
This lets you find out things like:</p>
<div class="ulist itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist">
<li class="listitem">
What phase an index is in and when it entered that phase.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The current action and what step is being performed.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If any errors have occurred or progress is blocked.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>For example, the following request gets information about the <code class="literal">datastream</code> indices:</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-console">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-console">GET datastream-*/_ilm/explain</pre>
</div>
<div class="console_widget" data-snippet="snippets/1104.console"></div>
<p>The response below shows that the bootstrap index is waiting in the <code class="literal">hot</code> phase’s <code class="literal">rollover</code> action.
It remains in this state and ILM continues to call <code class="literal">attempt-rollover</code>
until the rollover conditions are met.</p>
<div class="pre_wrapper lang-console-result">
<pre class="programlisting prettyprint lang-console-result">{
  "indices": {
    "datastream-000001": {
      "index": "datastream-000001",
      "managed": true,
      "policy": "datastream_policy",             <a id="CO430-1"></a><i class="conum" data-value="1"></i>
      "lifecycle_date_millis": 1538475653281,
      "age": "30s",                              <a id="CO430-2"></a><i class="conum" data-value="2"></i>
      "phase": "hot",
      "phase_time_millis": 1538475653317,
      "action": "rollover",
      "action_time_millis": 1538475653317,
      "step": "attempt-rollover",                <a id="CO430-3"></a><i class="conum" data-value="3"></i>
      "step_time_millis": 1538475653317,
      "phase_execution": {
        "policy": "datastream_policy",
        "phase_definition": {                    <a id="CO430-4"></a><i class="conum" data-value="4"></i>
          "min_age": "0ms",
          "actions": {
            "rollover": {
              "max_size": "50gb",
              "max_age": "30d"
            }
          }
        },
        "version": 1,
        "modified_date_in_millis": 1539609701576
      }
    }
  }
}</pre>
</div>
<div class="calloutlist">
<table border="0" summary="Callout list">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO430-1"><i class="conum" data-value="1"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The policy used to manage the index</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO430-2"><i class="conum" data-value="2"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The age of the index</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO430-3"><i class="conum" data-value="3"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The step ILM is performing on the index</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" width="5%">
<p><a href="#CO430-4"><i class="conum" data-value="4"></i></a></p>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p>The definition of the current phase (the <code class="literal">hot</code> phase)</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
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